Welcome to the 2020-21 FTC Ultimate Goal Season!
Hello New Mexico FIRST Tech Challenge Teams! We hope this post finds everyone healthy and safe in these difficult times!
Welcome to the 2020-21 FTC Ultimate Goal Season! FIRST has been hard at work on the development of a competition model that can be played utilizing a remote and/or a live in-person event models depending on the progression of the COVID-19 Pandemic conditions. Teams still build and compete with real physical robots in both event types. After evaluating the current situation and predictions through the rest of the calendar year, our board has decided to adopt the remote event model for our qualifiers. Currently, we are thinking of holding three qualifiers, one each in November, December and January. The number and makeup of these events is dependent on how many teams register this season. More details on specific dates will be forthcoming. We are leaving open the option for a live in-person event for our state championship on Feb 26-27, 2021 with hopes that conditions improve moving into the new year! So mark your Calendars for that and lets hope that we are able to meet for a traditional exciting FTC event at that time! Currently, due to the COVID-19 situation and the use of online remote events, we do plan to operate in a closed border model, with only NM teams competing in NM. We may re-evaluate that depending on the total number of teams registering in NM and the surrounding regions.
For more information on how the remote events work, please see the video by FTC Director Ken Johnson and refer to the Remote Events version of FTC Game Manual Part 1 . These are posted on the homepage of this website and on the FIRST website. Please feel free to reach out to me at nmftcinfo@gmail.com for more information. I’m calling into several telecons over the next few weeks to learn more about this season’s program, the remote events in particular.
Kickoff for the FTC Ultimate Goal season will be on Saturday September 12. FIRST will be hosting an online kickoff program. We hope to be following that up with some online presentations & workshops. Stay tuned for details! The FTC Registration System and Storefront are open in your FIRST Dashboard. Teams can register and purchase hardware thru the Dashboard. FTC Game sets and field components can also be pre-ordered thru the AndyMark website.
There are some changes this season. Several changes have occurred related to judging, awards and the Engineering Notebook. Additionally there are some hardware changes. The exciting news is the new Rev Robotics Control Hub is now legal for competition and available to all teams this season! This is essentially the combination of the REV Expansion Hub and the Android Phone in a single package. As an FTA, I highly recommend switching to the Control Hub! It is available thru the FTC storefront. FIRST has also “sunsetted” some hardware this season. The Modern Robotics electronics modules and any non-Motorola Android phones (ZTE, Samsung, etc..) have been eliminated and may not be used in competition. For a complete list of allowed hardware, please refer to FTC Game Manual Part 1 or drop a note to nmftcinfo@gmail.com